It’s Batman’s Fault

Given the fact that a change to the Constitution is being debated, it should be noted that Guatemala is not the only country that needs reform. A revision to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution is also necessary. It establishes the right of the citizens to have and carry weapons with a phrase that makes everything clear: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

This way, upright and corrupt citizens see the rule as explicit permission to become authentic Rambos.

The massacres in schools and other places where large groups of people meet have become entertainment for avid, dysfunctional subjects full of strong emotions and equipped with highly sophisticated weapons. The ease with which they obtain weapons and ammunition, among other factors, can be considered one of the major causes for this tremendously influential phenomenon in the lives of the country’s residents.

However, it’s necessary to look at the Amendment from a different perspective. The Amendment speaks of a well-regulated militia to guard the security of the State, which comes from the time of Independence. This recommendation was already obsolete a couple of centuries ago. What else do the Republicans — such lovers of war and staunch defenders of the Second Amendment — need in order to understand that the control of weapons would save the lives of millions of innocent people?

The massacres of Columbine, San Francisco, Carthage, Fort Hood, Manchester, Ohio, Seal Beach, Binghamton, Virginia, Omaha and now Denver — all committed within the last 10 years — are they not reason enough to rethink the flexibility of their laws?

Societies today are much more complex than those that created these laws of coexistence. The texts should evolve with the communities and be adapted to conditions completely different from those that gave them reason to exist. However, powerful economic groups and men mentally anchored in the time of the Conquest insist that a restriction on the possession and ownership of weapons of any type violates their liberties, referring to the Ninth Amendment, which guarantees that no law can violate rights of citizens that have been previously recognized.

This inevitably leads to question those rights. How is it possible that, in a democratic and peaceful society, civilians are allowed to have weapons whose purpose is the destruction of another human being? With what mindset does it make sense that children and adolescents are trained in handling high-caliber weapons, acquire ammunition and can enter a school, a movie theater, or a mall to enjoy themselves killing innocent beings?

They say that the most-recent film in the Batman series could have provoked the massacre in Denver. And that video games also affect the minds of these deranged youth, capable of playing to emulate the heroes. Frankly, I don’t think so. Rather, I think that here, there is a problem of values much more serious than products from the entertainment industry, which only reflect this reality.